In an alternate timeline somewhere, “Men in Black” may have led to the blockbuster leading man career of “Friends” star David Schwimmer instead of Oscar-winner Will Smith. Stories about Schwimmer’s near-casting in the first “Men in Black” film have been around for years. However, during his appearance this week on the podcast “Origins With Cush Jumbo” (via The Hollywood Reporter), Schwimmer explained more fully why he ended up picking a different project over the hit sci-fi action-comedy.
It] was a brutal decision,” the actor admitted to Jumbo, noting that a lot more went into his decision to decline the Agent J role than his tight “Friends” shooting schedule. “I had just finished filming ‘The Pallbearer,’ my first film with Gwyneth Paltrow, and there were high expectations of that which didn’t come true,” Schwimmer told the host with a laugh. “It was kind of a bomb, but there were high expectations and the studio which was Miramax wanted to lock me into a three-picture deal at a fixed price, and I said I would do that if I got to direct my first movie.”
Schwimmer spent months negotiating with Miramax before they came up with a deal: He would appear in three additional movies for the company, but he would also get to direct a film featuring his “entire theater company.” The actor spoke about this to THR (via Den of Geek) back in 2016 as well, explaing, “That was my goal, to give […] to bring everyone up with me, to give everyone a shot. And I did it.” The film in question was “Since You’ve Been Gone,” a comedy about a class reunion that Schwimmer co-starred in and directed with a script from Jeff Steinberg. The cast included Philip Rayburn Smith, Joy E. Gregory, Joey Slotnick, Teri Hatcher, Jon Stewart, Rachel Griffiths, and Lara Flynn Boyle, some of whom had been a part of the theater company Schwimmer loved.
